Mango Chicken over Coconut Rice

Tell me what you eat,

and I shall tell you what you are.

-Jean-Anthelme Brilliat-Saravin

After tonight’s dinner, with the above quote in mind, Jean would peg me as a lover of all things tropical and he would be right. I have long fantasized of changing my heritage to more suit my palate and climate preferences. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t get excited at the prospect of scaring the life out of people when I tell them I love them (I’m mostly German BTW), but island cuisine and way of life melds so much better with my current state of mind than my own German roots ever have. (With the exception of Christmas of course. I would be lost without my German Christmas traditions and pfeffernusse.)

Every time I eat a perfectly ripe pineapple or sprinkle some toasted coconut on my latest creation I am reminded of how grateful I am that other cultures and countries share their food with us. My diet would be pretty unexciting if I were only able to eat the foods that naturally grew near my geographical location. It would, however, give me even more incentive to move to a tropical locale.

Nonetheless, this quick and easy recipe helped to muffle my desire to escape to a tropical paradise.

With the kids now back in school and back to a myriad of activities, it has been increasingly difficult to get a good meal on the table. This is the perfect season for slow cookers. With a little prep work earlier in the day, your family can be sitting down to a warm delicious meal moments after mom’s taxi service closes for the day.

Cook rice as per package directions but sub coconut milk for as much water as you can.

For example I cooked cal rose rice in a microwave rice cooker that called for 3 cups of water to 2 cups of rice. The 16.5 oz can was almost 2 c so I finished filling the measuring cup with water to equal 3 cups.